Briefs

Congressional negotiators have reached agreement on FY 2004 appropriations for information technology research and development (IT R&D) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Under the agreement, NSF's budget is slated to grow to $5.57 billion in FY 2004, an increase of $268 million over FY 2003, or 5 percent.

Under its allotment, the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate of NSF will grow to $606 million for FY 2004, an increase of $24 million over FY 2003, or just over 4 percent. The increase includes $225 million for NSF's Information Technology Research program (ITR) and "not less than $20 million" for the agency's cyberinfrastructure initiatives in FY 2004. NSF's education initiatives, including the President's Math and Science Partnerships, the Noyce Scholarship Program, and the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Talent Expansion (STEP, or Tech Talent) program, will also receive slight increases.